best settings for fast flash shots

NeVeR

Hi all.

Just wondering that the best settings are for continuous shoting with the flash on,

I've a Canon 400D (no added flash just normal one)

I've been messing with the settings and i found one that took about 1 a second,, But for the life of me i cant get it back to that.

Does anyone have any setting tips?

bovril

I have the 580 flash and when I want to use continuous shooting and I want the flash to fire every time I use a highish ISO. I find if I use a low ISO the flash won't keep up with the shots.

AnimalRights

Never knew that Bovril, I had to wait a few times last night.
Ta.

bovril

A wise young man from these here parts thought me all I know about using the flash

Best thing I can advise is to try it out for youself. Set your ISO to 100 and put on continuous shot mode and fire off a few shots. Then set your ISO to 640+ and fire off a few shots. You'll see the difference straight away.

AnimalRights

No need to do it, I believe you!
I have the 430II, with the 40D I used iso of 200, the 5DII by all accounts under exposes with a flashgun and last night I used around 320, might put it up to 400, I used bounce flash off the ceiling as I lost my diffuser last week.

bovril

you can also set your flash to underexpose too. I would normally set it to underexpose by -1/3 or -2/3

TJM

For those of you using a flash with preflash TTL (i.e. most of them) the pre-flash uses up a surprising amount of power. If you can set the flash to manual you'll notice faster shooting time - especially at lower power levels.

DaireQuinlan

TJM wrote: »

For those of you using a flash with preflash TTL (i.e. most of them) the pre-flash uses up a surprising amount of power. If you can set the flash to manual you'll notice faster shooting time - especially at lower power levels.

I'm amazed that the various companies haven't come up with TTL that works the same way as the old film TTL. Maybe its impossible, I guess there's just something about the various layers covering the sensor, or the microlenses on the sensor or something which make it impossible. My Nikon F4 (and indeed my FE2 aswell) has the most spot on TTL flash metering I've ever used in any camera. Every time I've relied on it, it has nailed the exposure perfectly. No need for pre-flashes.

@AnimalRights: Yeah, if you think about it, lower ISO means that the flash has to pump out more power for every shot. To get the flash to recycle faster you have to either
1. Raise the ISO
2. Open the aperture more
3. Buy better batteries or an external battery pack.

AnimalRights

I thought about it afterwards and obviously it made sense...now if I could only think of things before hand.
Raising the ISO will do me, it's not often I suffer with the issue.
(I normally shoot wide open anyway)

5uspect

+1 for better batteries.
Get NiMH batteries, either for a grip for onboard flash or for the flash. They deliver current faster improving recycle times.

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/09/feed.html

challengemaster

You want fast flash? Get the radiopopper PX's. Sync speed of upto 1/8000, normal flash sync speed, 1/200 or 1/250 .

:P

+2 for NiMH batts. Try get 2600mAh upwards

5uspect

Maybe get one of these:
http://www.new-wave.com/1nwrProducts/PegasusPIV.htm
up to 20kHz rep rate at a blindingly (literally) bright output.

a steal at €90k...